Slashdot Mirror
Vivendi Takes Over Radionomy, Winamp Relaunch Now Possible (windowsreport.com)
SmartAboutThings writes: Winamp could once again be brought back to life after Vivendi Group took over the majority stake in Radionomy, the previous owner of the app who purchased it from AOL in early 2014. AOL originally planned to discontinue both Winamp and Shoutcast, but instead the company decided to sell the software to Belgian online radio service, Radionomy. The new owners initially promised that they'll keep Winamp alive, but no updates have been released since the takeover, which made most people think that Winamp era has ended for good. Vivendi Group, which owns or is involved in famous companies such as Dailymotion, Ubisoft, and Deezer, could help relaunch Winamp, although the press release announcing the acquisition offers no suggestion in this regard. The company, however, does mention Winamp and Shoutcast as two of the most important assets that will join its portfolio following the takeover.
Winamp, it really whips the Llama's ass!
Honestly, what more does Winamp need? For what most people who still use it want to do with it, it works just fine. Vivendi being involved in it means it'll probably promptly be ruined and made into some type of iTunes clone with a metric shit-ton of bloat and do half-a-million things in a mediocre fashion. As for Shoutcast, it also does what it's supposed to do: stream audio.
The fact that a company owned the product and was doing nothing in particular with it was, to me, a good thing.
Vivendi also acquired UMG and most of EMI over the last decade or so.
Winamp, EMI and Universal Music Group under one roof... how times have changed.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
I strongly believe that Shoutcast is the more important of the two applications here, and likely the reason for the acquisition. There are approximately a zillion interchangeable client players / music library managers, but Shoutcast and other compatible programs like icecast are dominant in the indie-scale internet radio space. There are tons of clients (one open source example - Butt) that can broadcast using the original Soundcast system. I liked Winamp long back in the day, but I do think Shoutcast is the more important news here.
I have experience: I co-founded http://houseofsound.org - and they are still using Icecast to broadcast their streams.
I guess it does demonstrate the enduring power of a marque though. Sure, WinAmp hasn't been relevant for ages, but people still remember it. I remember even making a skin for the music player I used on my PocketPC PDA (gsplayer I think it was) to make it look like WinAmp, mustv'e had way too much time on my hands.
Sure, it's hard to see how WinAmp could be brought back to prominence. Certainly not in the same form as it was; if you want that, just download the old versions. But it's not impossible; I can't say I'm 100% happy with the music players I use, the online radio apps I use, or the streaming services on the market. So there's room for someone to do better, and if it happened to have the WinAmp name attached it wouldn't hurt.
Oh no... it's the future.
It just works on user's computer, and remains among the best if not the best audio player on windows to date.
I'm using vlc to play music now. It plays everything that I want to play and then some. Very rarely but still occasionally I run into something that winamp won't play.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Ohhh man. That brings back fond memories of MUSHing and painful memories of Trumpet Telnet silently hanging if new text came in while you had a selection highlighted.
Do you even understand how people's point of view changes depending on who they are? From my point of view, they're the foreigner. That's what the word "foreigner" means, someone from a country other than your own. It really pains me to deal with fixed-minded people who cannot flex adequately to process new data. I really feel sorry for your types. What torture it must be to live in a mental prison like that, day after day, year after year, and yet not even realize that you're crippled.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Winamp 5.666 has a plugin called "Nullsoft iPod Device Plug-in". I have never tried it though.
You can't flex enough to realise the thousands of people listening to those streams are not listening to a foreign language.
I am a little concerned about the takeover of Radionomy. That's my main source of music on the intertubes and I'm hoping Vivendi doesn't decide that changes need to be made and eff that up.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M